Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in Shogun. The FX streaming series centers the story more on Japanese characters than the original NBC miniseries. Sanada served as a producer on the film and advised the cast and crew on period authenticity.
Kurt Iswarlenko/FX
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Kurt Iswarlenko/FX
Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in Shogun. The FX streaming series centers the story more on Japanese characters than the original NBC miniseries. Sanada served as a producer on the film and advised the cast and crew on period authenticity.
Kurt Iswarlenko/FX
When Shogun, James Clavell's bestselling novel, was adapted into a powerful NBC miniseries in 1980. The hero of the story was Englishman John Blackthorne.
The people he met when he landed in Japan in search of riches are considered and described as primitive.
In the Shogun 2024 adaptation, the Japanese characters are fully formed. The series elevates the stories of the Japanese characters as much as those of Blackthorne.
This was a deliberate decision on the part of Shogun co-creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks.
In the 1980 version of Shogun, Japan, its culture and its people were portrayed as foreign and distant. What do we lose when stories are only told from one point of view? And what can be gained by broadening the perspective?
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This episode was produced by Megan Lim. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.